Developing Senior Tourism in Remote Regions (TOURAGE)

The Vidzeme Planning Region (VPR) was established in 2006. The main goal of VPR is to ensure regional planning and coordination, as well as cooperation between municipalities and different governmental institutions. VPR provides planning services on national, regional and local level; it ensures regional and local level representation in elaboration of entrepreneurship, employment and social policies. VPR mission is to coordinate and promote long-term and well-balanced development of the Vidzeme region by providing effective services to local inhabitants, NGOs, entrepreneurs and municipalities.

As tourism development is one of the priorities of the Vidzeme region, VPR council can prepare and accept regional planning document which will be derived from the results of the project at hand. The planning document can be presented to other regional institutions of Latvia and to the Ministry of Economics.

VPR has experience of developing various attractive tourism products for all segments of tourists aiming both to promote healthy lifestyle and to develop tourism business in the region. Also there has been carried out several significant initiatives in cooperation with local governments and social partners implementing activities aimed to increase social inclusion and socially active life style. The main goal of these initiatives is to create equal possibilities for all social groups, involving both public authorities and business sector.

The previous activities related to this segment of tourism have been in the scope of other projects related to development of regional tourism infrastructure, increasing the number of tourists visiting Vidzeme region tourism sites, developing nature tourism routes and a range of other projects. VPR has been also involved in regional training projects and activities promoting social inclusion and vocational training as well as in several activities related to innovative business projects and ideas in tourism sector.

VPR is a public sector institution it has direct possibility to influence regional policy in the state and to develop planning documents and initiatives in the territory of VPR.